Thursday, May 23. 2013

The string of two consecutive good weather workdays was broken yesterday with intermittent rain, some of it heavy. So we worked in the shop and inside the plow body.

Framing

Buzz Morisette was in the shop fabricating and shaping new framing timbers for the cab cupola on the plow. Most of the wood around the windows and sills was rotted and will be replaced.

Priming

Dave Rogan worked inside the cupola between downpours and needlechipped and wire brushed a lot of the steel. In an afternoon dry spell he is applying primer here, and then the temporary window blanks were re-installed to help keep it dry.

Lining

Victor Humphreys and I fussed with the next piece of lining inside the plow. For some reason it was troublesome to fit into place. I bet we went through five fits and they gave us fits. Each time the wood notches seemed to expand (high humidity?) to prevent the piece from slipping in cleanly.

To the Corner

With the long piece installed below the side window, Victor quickly marched up the wall toward the right front corner. These are some of the pieces measured and cut last weekend and now ready for nailing.

Looking Ahead

Paul Cronin is just completing the last of 32 more new pieces of interior lining and framing for the plow body. Whoever arrives first on Saturday will have some painting ready for them!

Thursday, May 23. 2013

Chicago Aurora & Elgin 308 was a visitor to Barn 4 yesterday. Randall Hicks was able to operate the car to here and spot it over the pit for annual inspections and maintenance. This type of behind the scenes labor requires skill and time and is often unnoticed. But very important if we wish to have safe cars to operate for public rides.

The Rack

Pete Galayda is completing the insulator mounting arrangement for the grid boxes on Charles City Western 300, a steeple cab locomotive. That orange is REALLY ORANGE!!!

Window Tracks

Simon Harrison is mounting window tracks in the openings on the right side of Cleveland Transit System 4223. These were pieces laboriously cleaned up last year in the shop during poor weather conditions and now they are in their rightful place.

Post Caps

While Simon worked on the right side, Lorne Tweed raced to stay ahead of him by mounting more of the window post caps on the left side of the car. Other activity on this car included removal of the twelfth light fixture from the old decrepit ceiling panels, removal of all old rusted in screws from those and the steel backer plates, wire brushing the plates ready for paint, and fabricating two more new ceiling panels.

Side Framing

Tim Peters is examining some of the side framing on Chicago Rapid Transit 1024. As so often happens, any little thing becomes a much bigger thing. A rotted window sill was removed and this led to the discovery of water damage and rot of two of the cars window posts.

At the Platform

Tim is working on the platform at the west end, discovering more needed repairs layer by layer. Here he is down to the steel for supporting the end platform and fitting some reinforcing steel. And this is one of the GOOD corners!

We also noticed a lot of infrastructure and site work in process. At least five new steel poles for the electric trolley bus system extension have been painted and are ready to plant in the ground. Concrete forms were being prepared to sink in the holes as soon as they are dug and dry - we hope.

Work continued on stump removal from a low area that had 'volunteer' trees and brush growing in it for a decade or more. This will be a big improvement to the parking area, more capacity, and improved drainage.

Blog Administration

Find us on Facebook

find us on instagram

Category Tree

Calendar

Quicksearch

Comments

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Wed, 07-29-2015 07:42Subject to the general caveat that
a 100 year old steam engine can
always develop a last minute fault,
it is planned that #1630 will
operate 8/1 and [...]

CincyCubfan23 about Steam Department Update June 2015Wed, 07-29-2015 06:28Nigel - First, THANK YOU for all
the work you do (and everyone else
at IRM, for that matter)!
I believe I know the answer, but
I'll ask anyhow. [...]

Nathan about Steam Department Update June 2015Mon, 07-27-2015 16:26Nigel,
All matters of practicality do
indeed have to be taken into
consideration.
That said, as another suggestion,
you may want to talk to your [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Mon, 07-27-2015 07:38Nathan,
All ideas to be considered and
depends on how this year turns
out.
The big reason we run Thomas over
the route we do is the space [...]

Nathan about Steam Department Update June 2015Sun, 07-26-2015 19:24Hi Nigel,
Just noticed the comments and plans
for Thomas on this thread and am
intrigued.
It seems like a great idea to have
#1630 push the Percy [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Sun, 07-26-2015 09:41Andrew,
No. The Thomas train will follow
its normal route.
There will be two event trains, the
Thomas train and the Percy train
(standard DOWT [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Sat, 07-25-2015 08:45Peter,
The Thomas days will be
significantly different this year.
There will be a Percy train as well
as a Thomas train and, subject to
the [...]

Peter D. about Steam Department Update June 2015Fri, 07-24-2015 23:51Greetings: Quick question regarding
steam operations...In addition to
Thomas, when would you expect a
steam locomotive to be on the
tacks. Thanks.